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I’ve often been told that writers write in order to figure things out.That is definitely the case with this piece, in which I feel compelled to explore the current controversy surrounding the “Direct Drive” exhibit at the Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis. “Direct Drive,” an exhibit of work by Kelley Walker, features magazine photographs…

Does the image of an armored truck, outfitted with 360-degree surveillance cameras and secured by body-camera-toting security guards, parked on the lot of a bar in downtown St. Louis, fill you with civic pride? If so, welcome to militarized St. Louis. This is the city that sported a tank in its Gay Pride parade. Now…

Whenever I think my progressive values might need a reality check, all I have to do is go to the online version of my local daily newspaper and read some of the comments readers post about various articles. I should know not to do this. My blood pressure has been high recently, and this can’t…

Millions of words have been written about Medicaid, and the failure to expand it, in Missouri. The words have fallen on deaf ears. Maybe we need to buy our legislators hearing aids? Or, maybe instead of words, we need to add lights….cameras….action, as in this two-act morality play about those who have misplaced their morals.…

Where is Don Draper when we need him? Draper, of course, is the iconic 1960s advertising executive who stars in the hit TV series, Mad Men. He’s a chain-smoking, hard-drinking, womanizing city slicker of questionable morals who occasionally does something brilliant. Perhaps his most memorable advertising accomplishment occurred when his firm, Sterling Cooper Draper Price,…

Of all the news stories that have been written about the sad horror of the August shooting in Ferguson, MO, has there ever been a more puzzling one than the Oct. 15 front-page story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, headlined “Clergy-led protest raises questions over nature of repentance”? Post reporter Lillly Fowler described an event…

It happens every year, in the early spring. Right before we become obsessed with NCAA basketball, and several weeks before pollen blankets our patio furniture, Parade Magazine treats us to its annual rundown titled “What People Earn.” It’s a fascinating, frustrating look at our American economic system and what capitalism has wrought. It’s one of…

On Saturday, January 26, when page three of my morning newspaper featured a story about four local homicides, and when people in cities across the country were marching under the banner of “One Million Moms for Gun Control,” I went to a gun show. Actually, it was advertised as a “Gun and Knife Show,” but…

As an admitted control freak, it pains me to write these words. But the truth is: some people have too much control. You don’t have to look far to see it. In Washington, Grover Norquist has too much control. In the world of sports, some think that Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has too much power.…

It’s disappointing that those who are in charge at the Missouri History Museum seem to have forgotten an important rule when it comes to history: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” As they apparently played fast and loose with taxpayer dollars in a suspect land deal with a former board…